JaJah launches free translation and voice dialing services
Telephony service JaJah has launched two completely different voice tools that are both useful in their own right. The first is a new "concierge" service that lets you call any of your contacts with voice dialing using a special local access number. It works even if your handset does not support voice dialing, and will connect you to that person as long as you've synced up your address book with JaJah's.
The other service, called Babel, is more useful for people visiting Beijing as part of this summer's Olympics. By calling a special phone number you can leave a voice message that will be translated to Mandarin in just a few seconds. It's meant to be used as an on-the-go tool for English speakers who are over there to watch the games and who might run into translation issues while getting around.
Unfortunately, Babel requires calling a local U.S., U.K., or Australia local access number to access it, as there's not currently one for China. The good news is that if you're in the depths of a local Chinatown in one of these supported countries, you'll be able to ask for directions or order a dish off a restaurant menu using your phone instead of having to point to it on a menu.
I gave Babel a spin earlier this morning and had mixed results. You might as well give up for things like URLs or long words. Even when I spokes as slowly and as clearly as possible, it managed to flub up more than half of the words in some cases including classics like turning "point" into "porno" and "get" into "Georgia." Regardless, its speed is truly impressive as it spits back results in just a few seconds. You can view my trials with it in the video below, or give it a spin yourself at 1-718-513-2969. You can also find the other local access numbers for the U.K. and Australia here.
If you're a native Mandarin speaker, I'd love to hear how this does with English translations. Let me know in the comments.
Josh Lowensohn writes for Webware.com, CNET's blog about Web applications and services. E-mail Josh, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Josh. 
Re: "It then came back with "Please try again later"" - we did experience some overload issues yesterday but additional capacity has been added so hopefully all set for the next few weeks. Our bad, but should be ok now.
Re: "It then came back with "Please try again later"" - we did experience some overload issues yesterday but additional capacity has been added so hopefully all set for the next few weeks. Our bad for failing the first and simplest test, but should be ok now.
- by tek-ed August 11, 2008 9:53 PM PDT
- Hmmm...I think you need to clarify what language it translates...It doesn't translate "Chinese". There are hundreds of Chinese dialects...this service will be of *NO* service if you are visiting Hong Kong for instance (and no, not everybody speaks English, in fact very few people actually speak English in Hong Kong). People in Hong Kong speak Cantonese, which according to the person sitting opposite me is quite different than mandarin...which is unfortunate...I was hoping I could use the service to tell taxis where I need to go while I'm in Hong Kong.
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